--- title: "Jensen Huang Presses On: Advancing on Chips, Data Centers, and Models, NVIDIA Cements AI Dominance Through Investment-Driven Lock-In" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/296845999.md" description: "NVIDIA is building an AI moat with unprecedented intensity: co-leading Perplexity’s funding round, spending $6 billion to secure Poolside’s software licenses and 100 engineers, and deeply investing in data center power infrastructure. Meanwhile, flagship chip prices are set to rise 17% next year, pushing construction costs for gigawatt-scale data centers up by over $5 billion. Jensen Huang’s strategy is clear—lock in partnerships through investment ahead of the AI infrastructure boom, and affirm pricing power through price hikes" datetime: "2026-08-25T01:41:11.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/296845999.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/296845999.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/296845999.md) generator: "portal-rs" --- # Jensen Huang Presses On: Advancing on Chips, Data Centers, and Models, NVIDIA Cements AI Dominance Through Investment-Driven Lock-In NVIDIA is consolidating its core position in the artificial intelligence supply chain with a rare density of action. Facing multiple pressures—including chip price hikes, rising data center construction costs, and increasingly negative public sentiment—Jensen Huang has chosen to accelerate his offensive rather than remain on the sidelines. According to a Tuesday report by The Information, NVIDIA recently announced it would lead a multi-billion dollar financing round for AI search and agent company Perplexity, spend $6 billion to license software and acquire talent from AI coding startup Poolside, and continue injecting capital into data center land and power developers. **These three fronts are advancing simultaneously, pointing to a single strategic goal: locking in NVIDIA’s bundled hardware and software solutions at the early stage of AI infrastructure construction to seize the first-mover advantage.** Meanwhile, server prices for NVIDIA’s flagship Blackwell and Rubin chip systems are expected to rise by approximately 17% next year. Analysts estimate this will increase the construction cost of a gigawatt-scale data center by at least $5 billion. Despite significant cost pressures, NVIDIA’s earnings report for the July quarter, released this week, is expected to continue its strong growth momentum. ## Data Center Layout: Exchanging Investment for Early Lock-In NVIDIA’s investment logic for data center infrastructure is clear. Jensen Huang has consecutively announced investments in several data center land and power developers in the short term, **aiming to embed NVIDIA’s bundled hardware and software solutions into the data center construction process as early as possible, while hedging against the risk of chip oversupply caused by issues such as power supply delays and cost overruns.** Cloud service providers and data center developers are facing unexpected delays and costs related to power and other factors, creating a window for NVIDIA to intervene early. NVIDIA made a minority equity investment in Cloverleaf Infrastructure, a company focused on coordinating land, power, and construction resources to provide "build-ready" sites for data centers. Additionally, NVIDIA ultimately invested in Lancium—the power developer behind OpenAI’s Stargate facility in Abilene, Texas. OpenAI had previously explored the possibility of independently investing in or acquiring Lancium. ## Model Strategy: A $6 Billion Bet on Nemotron At the AI model level, NVIDIA also demonstrates strong ambition. NVIDIA has agreed to pay $6 billion by the end of next year to license part of Poolside’s software and recruit 100 employees from the company. Poolside initially focused on developing AI coding agents before pivoting to the data center and open-weight model sectors. **This deal indicates Jensen Huang’s commitment to establishing Nemotron as a frontier-tier open-source model.** This move aims to make NVIDIA not just a chip supplier, but a key participant in the AI model ecosystem, thereby building a deeper moat across the entire AI value chain. ## Chip Price Hikes: Passing Cost Pressures Downstream NVIDIA’s dominant position is also reflected in its pricing power. Server manufacturers have informed customers that prices for some flagship NVIDIA Blackwell and Rubin chip systems will rise by approximately 17% upon delivery next year. **This increase will raise the construction cost of a gigawatt-scale data center by at least $5 billion, directly transmitting cost pressures to cloud service providers and data center developers.** Nevertheless, these pressures are not expected to appear in NVIDIA’s July quarter earnings report released this week. Jensen Huang and Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress are expected to provide a series of positive figures to preemptively address external doubts regarding the tightening economic and political environment faced by its major chip customers. ## External Challenges: Headwinds in Public Opinion and Industry Concerns NVIDIA’s expansion is not without resistance. **Public attitude in the United States toward AI and the data centers behind it is becoming increasingly negative,** and the economic arguments held by anti-data center activists are difficult to effectively refute. Statements by AI leaders such as Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Demis Hassabis that AI will cure cancer have also failed to effectively turn public opinion; even AI supporters within the pharmaceutical industry are beginning to show resistance toward frontier labs. **Meanwhile, the penetration speed of AI commercialization is slower than expected.** OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently admitted that he underestimated the difficulty of AI disrupting the software industry, stating that "the economy has too much inertia, and people keep doing the same things." Altman compared the current stage to the eve of the iPhone’s birth, believing it is largely a "product-level failure." OpenAI is also facing turmoil within its sales team; following the departure of former Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser, Kaylin Voss, the head of sales for the Americas, also resigned recently after only five months in the role. In contrast, Anthropic’s growth momentum is stronger. Anthropic’s banking advisors have told potential investors that the company’s IPO valuation could reach as high as $2 trillion, with a financing scale potentially exceeding $100 billion. 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